Friday, December 18, 2009

Day #21,548

Today's Music: Murder He SaysHere's another of my favourites of 2009 (from 1943). Like many of the songs from this time it suffers from a standard "swing band" arrangement so that the singer really has to put it over to make it memorable. I believe Betty Hutton does that.

Movie #1159: The Beast Of Yucca Flats (1961, Coleman Francis)I had the urge to watch some trash so I had a look in the Internet Archive and what should I find: one of the movies shortlisted for worst ever made!The plot is total nonsense. It was shot as a silent with voice-over added later. There are two scenes of scantilly clad young ladies that appear to have been added later (you can actually see these scenes whereas the rest of the movie looks like it was shot at night (without lights)). But the scene that makes it worth the purchase price (it was free) is the final scene between Tor Johnson and a rabbit. You too can see this cinematic masterpiece by going to the above link.

Movie #1160: Fear In The Night(1947, Maxwell Shane)Well, that Beast Of Yucca Flats was so much fun I figured I try another from the Internet Archive. This one was based on a story by the king of the odd-ball plots, Cornell Woolrich. And he doesn't disappoint: a man wakes up from a dream in which he murders someone. Turns out he really did kill someone and it takes someone like Mr Woolrich to make the murder-in-a-dream plot plausible. I'd never heard of the director Maxwell Shane but despite the low quality of the print, I'd say he did a pretty good job.